Author: David Kenahan
Grade Level: 11/12
Course: Physics 1
Purpose of Unit
The purpose of this unit is to introduce the students to Newton's three governing laws of motion. It is important that students both understand the three laws and can apply the three laws to the world around them. Though some of the subtleties of this unit are in favor of developing a more mathematically adept student; the primary goals encompass a fundamental understanding of forces and their direct translation into motion. Furthermore, it is equally important that all students are able to develop a stronger foundation of problem solving, critical thinking, [graphing] calculator use, and peer/group thinking techniques. It is important that all students are encourages to try their hardest, yet not be expected to succeed immediately due to the difficulty in what they are practicing. Though personal accountability is essential at the high school level; students should be encourage to work and think in groups due to the much longer amount of time and thought the problems in this unit impose. The pinnacle goal of course is "understanding". This is most likely to be achieved through the use of various inquiry-based assignments/experiments. The students will often work in groups and use technological resources to collect data, post homework, check homework solutions, and interact with others in the class as well as the teacher. Keeping the students motiviated and focused on the topics of the lesson so that they think about it at least a little bit after school is over will help all (if not most) succeed far beyond any typical lecture-based class.
Learning Performances and Standards
CONTENT STANDARD A: As a result of activities in grades 9-12, all students should develop:
Abilities necessary to do scientific inquiry
Understandings about scientific inquiry
-Before students begin to address this topic they need to understand that science does not come from a book. Science encompasses change in paradigm, change in knowledge, and change in understanding. The lifeblood of science is fueled by disagreement and constant experimentation to either prove or disprove a hypothesis.
-Some of the goals within this standard and the unit are for students to be able to:
Identity from a list of claims which are scientifically relevant and some that are not.
Construct a scientific process for inquiry into a general topic.
Reflect on their experiment and experimental process in hopes of future improvement.
CONTENT STANDARD B: As a result of their activities in grades 9-12, all students should develop an understanding of:
Motions and forces
Objects change their motion only when a net force is applied. Laws of motion are used to calculate precisely the effects of forces on the motion of objects. The magnitude of the change in motion can be calculated using the relationship F = ma, which is independent of the nature of the force. Whenever one object exerts force on another, a force equal in magnitude and opposite in direction is exerted on the first object.
-Before this unit students need to come to terms with their current schema of force. In the majority of scenarios they must learn to free themselves of their current understanding while keeping to the idea of associating their prior life-knowledge to what this unit teaches. Some of the most common misconceptions include wrongful associations of velocity and accelerations equaling forces. Though they are direct translations of forces; defeating this excessive generalization is priority number one in this unit. Student led discussion with teacher verification will prove the strongest tool for this standard.
-Some of the goals within this standard and the unit are for the students to be able to:
Identify and list different forces and categorize them.
Give examples of Newton's 1st law of motion.
Apply the concept of Newton's 2nd law (F=ma) to a variety of problems.
Reflect on Newton's 3rd law of motion and its "completeness" ability in real-life applications.
Analyze and interpret data collect during inquiry based assignments and verify with F=ma.
CONTENT STANDARD E: As a result of activities in grades 9-12, all students should develop:
Abilities of technological design
Understandings about science and technology
-This unit has an heavy emphasis on technology. Whether it be the technology in the calculator, computer, physics simulation program, or measuring device used in the experiments; students often have the preconceived notion that technology is a "shortcut" tool to make problems easier. It will be stressed that increased aid of technology is a byproduct of scientific inquiry, and provides the fuel to further inquire. It is the purpose of technology to substantially increase the efficiency of the scientific method; not scapegoat the process of thinking to easily obtain the answer.
-Some of the goals within this standard and the unit are for the students to be able to:
Identify different types of technology and their general use/purpose.
Evaluate which unit of technology is most applicable to an experiment.
Use technology to collect data.
Apply theoretical knowledge to technologically collected data to verify/discredit a claim.
PS3 (9-11)- 8 Students demonstrate an understanding of forces and motion by…
8a predicting and/or graphing the path of an object in different reference planes and explain how and why (forces) it occurs.
8b using modeling, illustrating, graphing explain how distance and velocity change over time for a free falling object.
8aa using a quantitative representation of how distance and velocity change over time for a free falling object.
8bb using a quantitative representation of the path of an object which has horizontal and free fall motion.
8cc. by modeling, illustrating, graphing, and quantitatively explaining the path of an object, which has horizontal and free fall motion. e.g. football, projectile.
PS3 (9-11)–9 Students demonstrate an understanding of forces and motion by…
9b using Newton’s Laws of Motion and the Law of Conservation of Momentum to predict the effect on the motion of objects.
-When beginning the unit on Newton's laws of motion it is expected that many (if not all) the students has a full/partial misconception of force and how it relates to mass, position, velocity, and acceleration. To minimize redundancies, specific misconceptions are described in each lesson plan in the context section. Clarification of the three laws will be stressed in every lesson through the use of lecture, group discussion, problem solving, inquiry based experimentation, and technology integration through the pending lessons.
-Some of the foundational goals within these standards and the unit are for the students to be able to:
Identify and interpret Newton's 1st law and its fundamental importance to our understanding of our universe.
Analytically manipulate Newton's 2nd law to predict and evaluate physical systems including position, velocity, and acceleration.
Reason the need for Newton's 3rd law and its overall clarification value in respect to the 1st and 2nd law.
Produce clear and concise Free-body diagrams regardless of problem difficulty.
Integrate the force of Friction into previously solved systems to further accuracy and preciseness.
Outline, Concept Map, or other Graphical Representation of the Concepts Addressed in the Unit
-Students will complete a variety of homework assignments geared to helping the teacher better understand the students weaknesses and strengths. It is also important that the students receive feedback as soon as possible for such an assignment before they forge they even did it. Nearly EVERY lesson has some form of assessment that is geared towards being most formative. These quizzes/homework are also designed to be artifacts for the students to use to study from or assist their peers. One of the quizzes has a section that meant to be strictly summative to keep the information fresh in the students minds halfway before the final test. The only other test that is not strictly formative is the final test is is designed to be summative to accurately allow students to show their final maturation of the unit as a young learner. This final test is designed to accurately debrief the class and measure overal progress in the unit.
Rationale
-The topic of Newton's Laws is one of the most important sections in a student's pre-college education. Having a student get comfortable with Newton's Laws in high school facilitates an easier transition into college-level physics which reintroduces Newton's Laws with calculus interventions.
-Through the use of experiments as well as visual instruction in the classroom the unit will become both meaningful and concrete.
-By using inquiry based instruction students are able to converse with one another in classroom discussion as well as the teacher. Most of the lessons are constructed in a way that allows for this kind of inquiry/discussion both in the beginning and end of the classes. The core of the lecture/topic will be during the middle portion of class time with the intent of short conversation rather than the long discussions reserved for the beginning and end of class.
-For information regarding Assessment Plan, See Above Section^
-To take into account for the students schema the beginning portion of class will have discussions that pertain to the students prior knowledge and experiences. A variety of discussions can range from sports to automobiles (whichever is more applicable to the group of the students in the class). -The lessons are sequenced in the same order as the book presents them. It is so because i feel the book provides a natural flowing order of things from the introduction to forces, newton's 1st, 2nd, 3rd, and so on. The ideas build upon themselves nicely and at no point during the sequence are the students not applying something they already learned from one of the previous lessons (sometimes units!). -By having the students complete a wide variety of inquiry-based assignments/experiments the students will hopefully gain a more real-world appreciation for the topics covered in this unit. However, at the same time the students will be completing theoretical problems such as the ones posed in the book. In one of the final inquiry assignments (Build an elevator), the students will be doing both theoretical calculations to predict, and actual engineering and experimenting to collect data. This inquiry assignment is meant to be the capstone inquiry assignment in the unit because of its monumental implications towards how the real-world field of science works.
Title: Newton's Laws and You!
Author: David KenahanGrade Level: 11/12
Course: Physics 1
Purpose of Unit
The purpose of this unit is to introduce the students to Newton's three governing laws of motion. It is important that students both understand the three laws and can apply the three laws to the world around them. Though some of the subtleties of this unit are in favor of developing a more mathematically adept student; the primary goals encompass a fundamental understanding of forces and their direct translation into motion. Furthermore, it is equally important that all students are able to develop a stronger foundation of problem solving, critical thinking, [graphing] calculator use, and peer/group thinking techniques. It is important that all students are encourages to try their hardest, yet not be expected to succeed immediately due to the difficulty in what they are practicing. Though personal accountability is essential at the high school level; students should be encourage to work and think in groups due to the much longer amount of time and thought the problems in this unit impose. The pinnacle goal of course is "understanding". This is most likely to be achieved through the use of various inquiry-based assignments/experiments. The students will often work in groups and use technological resources to collect data, post homework, check homework solutions, and interact with others in the class as well as the teacher. Keeping the students motiviated and focused on the topics of the lesson so that they think about it at least a little bit after school is over will help all (if not most) succeed far beyond any typical lecture-based class.Learning Performances and Standards
CONTENT STANDARD A: As a result of activities in grades 9-12, all students should develop:
- Abilities necessary to do scientific inquiry
- Understandings about scientific inquiry
-Before students begin to address this topic they need to understand that science does not come from a book. Science encompasses change in paradigm, change in knowledge, and change in understanding. The lifeblood of science is fueled by disagreement and constant experimentation to either prove or disprove a hypothesis.-Some of the goals within this standard and the unit are for students to be able to:
CONTENT STANDARD B: As a result of their activities in grades 9-12, all students should develop an understanding of:
- Motions and forces
- Objects change their motion only when a net force is applied. Laws of motion are used to calculate precisely the effects of forces on the motion of objects. The magnitude of the change in motion can be calculated using the relationship F = ma, which is independent of the nature of the force. Whenever one object exerts force on another, a force equal in magnitude and opposite in direction is exerted on the first object.
-Before this unit students need to come to terms with their current schema of force. In the majority of scenarios they must learn to free themselves of their current understanding while keeping to the idea of associating their prior life-knowledge to what this unit teaches. Some of the most common misconceptions include wrongful associations of velocity and accelerations equaling forces. Though they are direct translations of forces; defeating this excessive generalization is priority number one in this unit. Student led discussion with teacher verification will prove the strongest tool for this standard.-Some of the goals within this standard and the unit are for the students to be able to:
CONTENT STANDARD E: As a result of activities in grades 9-12, all students should develop:
- Abilities of technological design
- Understandings about science and technology
-This unit has an heavy emphasis on technology. Whether it be the technology in the calculator, computer, physics simulation program, or measuring device used in the experiments; students often have the preconceived notion that technology is a "shortcut" tool to make problems easier. It will be stressed that increased aid of technology is a byproduct of scientific inquiry, and provides the fuel to further inquire. It is the purpose of technology to substantially increase the efficiency of the scientific method; not scapegoat the process of thinking to easily obtain the answer.-Some of the goals within this standard and the unit are for the students to be able to:
PS3 (9-11)- 8 Students demonstrate an understanding of forces and motion by…
PS3 (9-11)–9 Students demonstrate an understanding of forces and motion by…
- 9b using Newton’s Laws of Motion and the Law of Conservation of Momentum to predict the effect on the motion of objects.
-When beginning the unit on Newton's laws of motion it is expected that many (if not all) the students has a full/partial misconception of force and how it relates to mass, position, velocity, and acceleration. To minimize redundancies, specific misconceptions are described in each lesson plan in the context section. Clarification of the three laws will be stressed in every lesson through the use of lecture, group discussion, problem solving, inquiry based experimentation, and technology integration through the pending lessons.-Some of the foundational goals within these standards and the unit are for the students to be able to:
Outline, Concept Map, or other Graphical Representation of the Concepts Addressed in the Unit
Lesson Sequence
= 610 minutes (incl. 50 minute final test)
Assessment Plan
-Students will complete a variety of homework assignments geared to helping the teacher better understand the students weaknesses and strengths. It is also important that the students receive feedback as soon as possible for such an assignment before they forge they even did it. Nearly EVERY lesson has some form of assessment that is geared towards being most formative. These quizzes/homework are also designed to be artifacts for the students to use to study from or assist their peers. One of the quizzes has a section that meant to be strictly summative to keep the information fresh in the students minds halfway before the final test. The only other test that is not strictly formative is the final test is is designed to be summative to accurately allow students to show their final maturation of the unit as a young learner. This final test is designed to accurately debrief the class and measure overal progress in the unit.Rationale
-The topic of Newton's Laws is one of the most important sections in a student's pre-college education. Having a student get comfortable with Newton's Laws in high school facilitates an easier transition into college-level physics which reintroduces Newton's Laws with calculus interventions.-Through the use of experiments as well as visual instruction in the classroom the unit will become both meaningful and concrete.
-By using inquiry based instruction students are able to converse with one another in classroom discussion as well as the teacher. Most of the lessons are constructed in a way that allows for this kind of inquiry/discussion both in the beginning and end of the classes. The core of the lecture/topic will be during the middle portion of class time with the intent of short conversation rather than the long discussions reserved for the beginning and end of class.
-For information regarding Assessment Plan, See Above Section^
-To take into account for the students schema the beginning portion of class will have discussions that pertain to the students prior knowledge and experiences. A variety of discussions can range from sports to automobiles (whichever is more applicable to the group of the students in the class).
-The lessons are sequenced in the same order as the book presents them. It is so because i feel the book provides a natural flowing order of things from the introduction to forces, newton's 1st, 2nd, 3rd, and so on. The ideas build upon themselves nicely and at no point during the sequence are the students not applying something they already learned from one of the previous lessons (sometimes units!).
-By having the students complete a wide variety of inquiry-based assignments/experiments the students will hopefully gain a more real-world appreciation for the topics covered in this unit. However, at the same time the students will be completing theoretical problems such as the ones posed in the book. In one of the final inquiry assignments (Build an elevator), the students will be doing both theoretical calculations to predict, and actual engineering and experimenting to collect data. This inquiry assignment is meant to be the capstone inquiry assignment in the unit because of its monumental implications towards how the real-world field of science works.
EDC 430 F08 Unit Plan Eval - David K